Renault virgin and new Cup 197 owner, almost...

[bigsid]

Thought I'd say hello. Just agreed to buy a '09 197 Cup which I'm picking up tomorrow morning. Never owned a Renault of any kind before but had my eye on one as a weekend/track toy for a while. Hope I haven't bought a lemon, it's pretty high mileage and was going cheap, but loads of history and seemed to drive really nice so fingers crossed.

 

[cliovirgin]

YX09 KJN by any chance ?

 

[bedoef]

If its higher mileage, I would suggest checking the service records for evidence of:

- at least 2 timing belt changes (4 years or 80,000 kms)
- suspension refresh (top mounts, ball joints, bushes, engine and gearbox mounts, tie rod ends, drop and stabilizer links) relatively recently
- a recent gearbox fluid change / rebuilt gearbox?
- probably a damper change at least 1x

If all checks out, welcome to the club!

 

[bigsid]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. It's done 120k miles. It had timing belt, dephaser pulley, aux belt and waterpump done at about 60k. It had a reconditioned gearbox from RenParts around the same time and various other bits. It's got loads of history and looks like it's been serviced regularly. I fully expect to have to invest into some maintenance, but £2800 for an 09 Cup seemed reasonable. I tested a bunch of standard 197s and a 182 before some of which were more expensive and this one felt by far the best screwed together one of them all.

I plan on getting the cambelt done again as it's probably about due, service, fluid change etc. It's not my daily driver, so I've got time to go over it and figure out all the stuff that needs doing. There's a few cosmetic issues I know about but I'm hoping it's generally mechanically sound. Fingers crossed

 

[Foxspeed]

welcome

 

[bigsid]

YX09 KJN by any chance ?

Sorry, didn't see your message earlier, but yeah, that's the one. I put another thread up on the 197 section seeing if I could track down one of the previous owners as I noticed today there's a gold clio197.net stick on the rear is this your old car?

 

[cliovirgin]

Yes my old car. Cam belt is due every six years as late 197, so next year. The original gearbox was reconditioned with steel synchros, as the Renpart one went missing ! Believe some bits have been swapped out to another car. I did hear the engine had been used for a track car as ran a lot better, might have then been put back in, so worth checking.